This year, the free flavors will feature ingredients that are made possible by honey bees. Bees pollinate ingredients that are essential to more than 50 percent of Haagen-Dazs' flavors, company officials said in a news release.

Over the last several winters, approximately one in three bee colonies in the United States has vanished. Everything from poor nutrition to invasive mites to Colony Collapse Disorder ---- a phenomenon where bees from a colony abruptly desert the hive --- is affecting the bees.

To further educate ice cream enthusiasts about the honey-bee crisis, select shop locations will feature appearances by local community beekeepers.